Intermittent feeding mechanism for strip material



F. M. LlTTELL June 28, 1966 INTERMITTENT FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRIPMATERIAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 7, 1965 June 28, 1 966 LlTTELL3,258,263

INTERMITTENT FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRIP MATERIAL Filed Jan. '7, 1965 2Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,258,263 INTERMITTENT FEEDINGMECHANISM FOR STRIP MATERIAL Frederick M. Littell, Winnetka, lll.,assignor to F. J. Littell Machine Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporationof Illinois Filed Jan. 7, 1965, Ser. No. 424,891 4 Claims. (Cl. 271-51)This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending applicationSerial No. 277,371, filed May 1, 1963 and entitled Intermittent FeedingMechanism for Strip Mate-rial.

The invention relates to feeding machines for feeding strip material topunch presses, cutting devices and the like and has reference inparticular to a new and improved roller gear drive for intermittentlyrotating the feeding rolls of such feeding machines.

An object of the invention is to provide feeding mechanism for feedingstrip material and which will have very little mass so that relativelyhigh speeds can be obtained and which will feed the strip materialintermittently in predetermined feed lengths, the accuracy of which canbe maintained for all speeds of the mechanism.

Another object resides in the provision of coaching feed rolls havingintermittent rotation for feeding measured lengths of strip material andwherein each measured length will be precisely equal to the periphery ofone of said feed rolls, that is, the roll having connection with andbeing driven directly by the roller gear drive. Since the size of saidfeed roll thus determines the measured length of the strip material asfed by the machine, it will be understood that when it is desired tochange the feed length it is necessary to change the feed roll for oneof a different size such as will have a periphery equal to the feedlength desired.

In view of the foregoing, the invention contemplates the provision ofroller drive mechanism which will rotate the feed rolls in anintermittent manner and wherein deceleration and acceleration to andfrom the dwell period will be accomplished in a smooth manner thuseliminating shock and vibration on the feed rolls such as might destroythe accuracy of the measured feed lengths.

A more specific object is'to provide a roller gear drive forintermittently rotating the feed rolls of the feeding machine andwherein each revolution of the input shaft to the roller gear drive willproduce one complete revolution of the output shaft plus a dwell periodand which may exist for approximately sixty degrees of rotation of theinput shaft.

Another object is to provide an improved roller gear drive wherein atleast two rollers on the driven output shaft will always have engagingrelation with at least one of the carnming teeth on the driving gear andwherein the same two rollers on the output shaft will always engage thesame tooth on the driving gear for effecting the dwell period.

With these and various other objects in view, the invention may consistof certain novel features of construction and operation, as will be morefully described and particularly pointed out in the specification,drawings and claims appended thereto.

In the drawings which illustrate an embodiment of the device and whereinlike reference characters are used to designate like parts:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal sectional view taken su stantially verticallythrough a strip feeding machine and illustrating in connection therewiththe several improved features of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevational view of the feeding machine as shown inFIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a detail sectional view taken through the roller gear driveand which basically illustrates the mode of operation of the same;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view, parts being shown in section, illustrating thetransverse arrangement and contour of the camming teeth provided by thedriving input gear; and

FIGURE 5 is a plan view, parts being shown in section, illustrating thedwell portion of the driving input gear.

The feeding machine selected for illustrating the invention is shown inFIGURE 1 as including a frame or housing 10 having side walls 1 1, afront wall 12, a rear wall 13 and a top wall 14. The housing 10 isreinforced internally by the horizontal partition walls 15 and 16 and bythe vertical partition and connecting end wall 17. The side, front andrear walls are provided with a base extension 18 which forms asupporting foot for the housing. At the top of the front wall 12 anoverhanging extension 20 is provided and which may be integral with boththe front and top wall. However, the journalling portion 21 is part ofthe rear wall '13 only, being preferably formed integral with said wall.

Two driven shafts are journalled by the housing 10 and the said shaftsat their forward projecting end carry the feeding rolls 24 and 25 of thefeeding machine. When the metal strip material 26 is engaged by thefeeding rolls '24 and 25 and assuming that roll 24 is rotated in acounter-clockwise direction as shown in FIGURE 2, then the stripmaterial will be fed in a direction towards the left. The intermittentrotation of the feed rolls will advance the material in measured feedlengths. During the dwell period of the feeding rolls, the stripmaterial will remain at rest and various machine operations may then :beperformed on the material, or the material may be cut into individuallengths each having the same precise measurement as determined by thefeeding action of the feed rolls.

Each of the driven shafts are sectional having journalled end portionsjoined to an intermediate connecting member by means of universaljoints. This structure is required since the rolls 24 and 25 arevertically adjustable for separation in order that the strip material 26may be initially inserted between the rolls in the operation of settingup the machine.

Considering first the shaft for feed roll 24, it will be seen fromFIGURE 1 that the rear portion 27 is journalled in the section 21 bymeans of bearings 28 and that said shaft portion is fixed at itsprojecting left-hand end to a roller member 30. The shaft portion androller member may be suitably keyed to each other or the parts may beformed as an integral unit. The projecting right-hand end of shaft 27 isreduced in diameter for receiving the gear 31 which is keyed to theshaft and held in assembled relation by the nut 32. The roller member 30is provided with a recess which receives the end of the connectingmember 33 and the parts are joined, as previously mentioned, by auniversal joint including the pins 34, The forward end of the connectingmember 33 is also provided with a universal joint which employs the pins35. The said universal joint connects with the rear part 36 of the shaftportion 37 which is journalled by the bearings 38 in the adjustablemember 40. The forward end of shaft portion 37 is reduced in diameterand said reduced end receives the hub 41 to which is fixedly secured thefeed roll 24 by means of the bolts 42. The nut 43 is threaded to the endof shaft portion 37 for locking the feed roll 24 to said shaft.

The shaft for the upper roll includes the rear shaft portion 45 which isjournalled in the section 21 by the bearings 46. The left-hand end ofthe shaft portion is preferably integral with the housing of a universaljoint which includes the pins 47, whereas the right-hand end is reducedin diameter and said reduced end receives the gear 48. Said gear iskeyed to the shaft and held in assembled relation by the nut 50. Theconnecting member 51 is joined at its left-hand end by a universal jointincluding the pins 52 and provided by the part 53 having the shaftportion 54 integral therewith. The shaft portion 54 is journalled forrotation by the bearings 55 in an adjustable member 56. The forward endof the shaft 54 is reduced in diameter for receiving the hub 57 and theroll 25 is fixed to the hub by the bolts 58-. The hub is held to theshaft portion 54 by the nut 59.

The members 40 and 56 are adjustable in a vertical direction in orderthat the feeding rolls may be separated to initially receive the stripmaterial. Member 40 rides in guideways 60 and member 56 rides in similarguide- Ways 61, FIGURE 2. Adjustment of member 40 is effected by meansof the depending bolt 62, the threaded end of which extends through theledge 63 provided by the front wall 12. The nuts 64 and 65 maintain thebolt and thus the member 40 in adjusted position which, however, can bevaried by changing the position of the nuts.

The ledge 66 of member 56 has pivotally connected thereto at 67 the bolt68 which projects through an opening in the over-hanging extension 20.The projecting threaded end of the bolt 68 receives the nut 70 and thecoil spring 71 is confined between the base of the bolt and the saidextension. When the parts are positioned as shown in FIGURE 1, the coilspring 71 exerts a resilient force on member 56 which thus maintains thetop roller 25 in resilient contact with the strip material during thefeeding operation. The bite of the rolls on the material is thusaccentuated to insure the feeding of the material when the rolls arerotated.

The two shafts generally designated by numerals 33 and 51 are geared torotate in unison and to an equal extent by means of the gears 31 and 48which have meshing relation with each other. The same ratio as regardsthe diameter of roll 25 to roll 24 is maintained in connection with thepitch diameter of the gear 48 to gear 31. Thus, the feeding action ofthe two rolls on the strip material is equal at all times. It is alsocontemplated by the invention that the feeding lengths of the stripmaterial as fed by the machine will equal the peripheral length of feedroll 24. Thus, each feeding operation requires only one completerevolution of the roll 24-. When a different feed length is desired, thefeed rolls 24 and 25 are removed and a feed roll having the desiredperipheral length is substituted for roll 24. A substitution will alsobe required for roll 25 and since the ratio between the diameter of therolls is accordingly changed, gears 31 and 48 must also be removed andreplaced by gears of different diameters. The pitch diameters of thereplaced gears must be such as to maintain the same ratio with respectto the gears as exists with respect to the feed rolls.

The roller gear drive for rotating the feeding rolls 24 and 25 isdesigned to produce intermittent rotation of the rolls from acontinuously rotating input shaft. More particularly, the drivemechanism contemplated by the invention will rotate the roll 24 for acomplete revolution plus a dwell period for each revolution of the inputshaft. In the illustrated embodiment it is therefore necessary for theroll 24 to rotate three hundred sixty degrees while the input shaft isrotating three hundred degrees with the remaining sixty degrees formingthe dwell period during which the roll 24 will remain at rest.

The input shaft 75 is continuously driven at the desired uniform speedby any suitable form of power and it will be understood that the shaftis journalled for rotation by the side walls II of the housing 10.Within the compartment formed by the rear wall 13 and by the partitionWalls 16 and 17 the input shaft 75 has a drive gear '76 keyed thereto at77, the said drive gear having a plurality of specially contouredcamming teeth and a dwell tooth formed on its periphery as will bepresently described. The said teeth of the drive gear are adapted tocoact with a plurality of individual rollers of a roller assemblycarried by the roller support 30. The said rollers as best shown inFIGURE 3 are indicated by the numerals to 85, inclusive. Each roller isjournalled for rotation on a stud shaft such as 86 provided by theroller support 30 and during operation each individual roller is causedto selectively engage the camming teeth 90, 91, 92, 93 and 94 formed onthe periphery of the drive gear 76. Since the camming teeth have ageneral transverse direction on the periphery of the driving gear, theyefiect a camming of the engaged rollers and thus, the roller assembly30, the shaft 33 and the feed roll 24 are given rotation. The camming ofany pair of rollers such as rollers 83 and 84 as shown in FIGURE 4 willeffect sufiicient rotation of the roller assembly 30 to cause the nextadjacent roller and then roller 86, et cetera, to enter their respectivespaces between the camming teeth so that said rollers will be similarlycammed as rotation of the drive gear 76 continues. Each of the cammingteeth 90, 91, 92, et cetera, are disposed transversely of the drivinggear at approximately a thirty degree angle. However, this specificangular positioning is not critical since the same may vary from thirtyto forty-five degrees depending on the character of rotation desired ofthe output shaft 27. It will also be observed that each camming toothhas a special contoured shape which has been designed to promote thedesired rotation of the output shaft 33 by the camming action impartedto the rollers. For approximately three hundred degrees, the peripheryof the drive gear will be equipped with camming teeth such as 30, 91,92, et cetera, as described and it will be understood that the saidteeth are so constructed and arranged that during the three hundreddegrees of rotation of the drive gear, the roller assembly 30 will berotated for three hundred and sixty degrees thereby giving a completerotation to the feed roll 24. During rotation of the drive gear for theremaining sixty degrees, the rollers 80, 81 are caused to engage thedwell tooth '95 as best shown in FIGURE 5. For producing the dwellperiod the tooth 95 is disposed parallel to the sides of the drive gear76 or, in other words, the dwell tooth 95 will be parallel to the outputshaft 33. Accordingly, although the drive gear 76 continues to rotate,the rollers 80 and 81 are not cammed by reason of the paralleldisposition of tooth 95 and accordingly, the roller assembly 30 and therolls 24 and 25 remain at rest.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention a dwell period ofapproximately sixty degrees is contemplated. It is, of course, possibleto design drive gears which will produce a dwell period ranging fromapproximately thirty degrees of rotation of the input shaft toapproximately ninety degrees of rotation. The inclination of the cammingteeth and the length of the dwell tooth for the drive gear are factorsof design which will have to be ascertained for any particular dwellperiod. In all cases,

however, the camming teeth will occupy the major portion of theperiphery of the drive gear, with the dwell tooth occupying the minorportion.

For inserting the strip material 26 between the rolls 24 and 25, theadjustable member 40 can be lowered or member 56 can be elevated. Whenthe parts have been returned to original position as illustrated inFIGURE 1 the machine is ready for a feeding operation and continuousrotation of the input shaft 75 takes place. With rotation of the drivegear 76 the camming teeth will cam the rollers of the member 30 in themanner as described and the shaft 33 for the feed roll 24 willaccordingly rotate. Due to the meshing relation of gear 31 with gear 48,the shaft 51 is also rotated and said rotation is further effected bythe bite of the feed rolls 24 and 25 on the strip material. However, theperipheral speed of the roll 25 is maintained equal to that of roll 24since the pitch diameter of the gears has the same ratio one to theother as the diameters of the said rolls.

The rotation of the feed rolls will continue until one completerevolution of feed roll 24 has taken place. In the embodiment asdisclosed, this operation will require approximately three hundreddegrees rotation of the drive gear 76. For the remaining sixty degreesof rotation of the drive gear, the tooth 95 will be in contact with therollers 80 and 8-1, and the feed rolls will remain at rest during thisdwell period.

It will be observed that the invention provides a cantilever arrangementfor the feeding rolls 24 and 25 and which materially facilitates theinitial insertion of the strip material between the rolls. In order toproduce this cantilever arrangement the portions 37 and 54 of the outputand secondary shafts, respectively, extend beyond their bearings 38 and55. The feed rolls 24 and 25 are releasably secured to the saidextending portions 37 and 54 of the journalled shafts. As a result ofthis structure the feed rolls are readily available to the operator, andit is relatively easy to effect their separation and insert or removethe strip material which is to be fed by the rolls.

The invention is not to be limited to or by details of construction ofthe particular embodiment thereof illustrated by the drawings, asvarious other forms of the device will, of course, be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention orthe scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a feeding machine for feeding strip material, in combination witha pair of feeding rolls comprising a main roll and a secondary rolladapted to engage a strip of material located between the rolls, ajournalled output shaft for the main roll and to which the roll isnonrotatably secured, a second journalled shaft to which the secondaryroll is non-rotatably secured, spaced bearing means for journalling theshafts, respectively, the said bearing means for each shaft beinglocated inwardly of the roll secured to the shaft, whereby the roll iscarried by that portion of the shaft extending beyond the bearing means,a gear fixed to each shaft at the end opposite the feed roll and saidgears having meshing relation, universal joint means incorporated ineach shaft between the said spaced bearings thereof whereby the feedingrolls may be separated for initially receiving the strip materialtherebetween, means for driving the said journalled output shaftcomprising a continuously rotating input shaft, a roller assembly on thejournalled output shaft, and a gear drive on the input shaft havingoperative connection with the rollers of the roller assembly, said geardrive having a plurality of camming teeth and a dwell tooth on itsperiphery, and said teeth being so constructed and arranged as toproduce a complete revolution of the output shaft plus a dwell periodfor each complete revolution of the input shaft.

2. In a feeding machine, in combination, a frame member, an output shaftjournalled at its respective ends by the frame member, a main feedingroll fixed to one end of the output shaft, a gear fixed to the oppositeend of the output shaft, a second shaft journalled at its respectiveends by the frame member, a secondary feeding roll fixed to one end ofthe scond shaft and adapted to coact with the main feeding roll, asecond gear fixed to the opposite end of the second shaft and adapted tohave meshing relation with the gear on the output shaft, means fordriving the output shaft to rotate the feeding rolls, said meanscomprising a continuously rotating input shaft, a roller assembly on theoutput shaft providing a plurality of rollers adapted to rotate onangularly spaced, radially disposed axes, and a gear drive on the inputshaft having operative connection with the rollers of the assembly, saidgear drive having a plurality of camming teeth on its periphery whichare disposed generally transversely thereof and said gear drive alsohaving a dwell tooth on its periphery, the camming teeth occupyingapproximately three hundred degrees of the periphery of the gear drive,the dwell tooth extending for approximately sixty degrees of theperiphery of the gear drive, and the same two rollers on the rollerassembly always having contact with the dwell tooth for producing thedwell pe riod, whereby the roller assembly and the said gear drive areso constructed and arranged as to produce a complete revolution of theoutput shaft plus a dwell period for each complete revolution of theinput shaft.

3. In a feeding machine, in combination, a frame mem her, an outputshaft journalled at its respective ends by the frame member, a mainfeeding roll fixed to one end of the output shaft, a gear fixed to theopposite end of the output shaft, a second shaft journalled at itsrespective ends by the frame member, a secondary feeding roll fixed toone end of the second shaft and adapted to coact with the main feedingroll, a second gear fixed to the opposite end of the second shaft andadapted to have meshing relation with the gear on the output shaft,means for driving the output shaft to rotate the feeding rolls,saidmeans comprising a continuously rotating input shaft, a rollerassembly on the output shaft providing a plurality of rollers adapted torotate on angularly spaced radially disposed axes, and a gear drive onthe input shaft having operative connection with the rollers of theassembly, said gear drive having a plurality of camming teeth on itsperiphery which are disposed generally transversely thereof and saidgear drive also having a dwell tooth on its periphery, universal jointmeans on the output shaft and on the second shaft, respectively, andlocated between the journalled ends of said shafts, whereby the feedingrolls may be separated for initially receiving a strip of materialtherebetween, the camming teeth of said gear drive occupyingapproximately three hundred degrees of the periphery of the gear drivewith each tooth being transversely disposed on an angle ranging fromthirty to forty-five degrees, and the same two rollers on the rollerassembly always having contact with the dwell tooth for producing thedwell period, whereby the roller assembly and the gear drive are soconstructed and arranged as to produce a complete revolution of theoutput shaft plus a dwell period for each complete revolution of theinput shaft.

4. In a feeding machine for feeding strip material, in combination witha pair of feeding rolls comprising a main roll and a secondary rolladapted to engage a strip of material located between the rolls, ajournalled output shaft for the main roll and to which the roll isfixedly secured, a second journalled shaft to which the secondary rollis fixedly secured, spaced bearing means for journalling the shaftsrespectively, at least one of said bearing means for each shaft beinglocated inwardly of the roll secured to the shaft, whereby the roll iscarried by that portion of the shaft extending beyond the bearing means,means for driving the output shaft to rotate the feeding rolls, saidmeans comprising a continuously rotating input shaft, a roller assemblyon the output shaft providing a plurality of rollers adapted to rotateon angularly spaced, radially disposed aXes, a gear drive on the inputshaft having operative association with the rollers of the assembly,said gear drive having a plurality of camming teeth on its peripherywhich are disposed generally transversely thereof and said gear drivealso having a dwell tooth on its periphery, the camming teeth occupyingthe major portion of the circumference of the gear drive and the dwelltooth occupying the minor portion of the circumference, and the same tworollers on the roller assembly always having contact with the dwelltooth for producing the dwell period, whereby the roller assembly andthe said gear drive are so constructed and arranged as to produce acomplete revolution of the output shaft plus a dwell period for eachcomplete revolution of the input shaft.

References (Jited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS7/1905 Germany.

OTHER REFERENCES Ferguson Machine Co., Catalog 107, 760.

11/1918 Maier. 4/ 1921 Auer. 11/1961 Hider.

RAPHAEL M. LUPO, Primary Examiner.

